Appointments

Consultations for either a Doctor or Practice Nurse are by appointment only. To make your appointment, please telephone 731331 or attend the surgery in person between 0800 and 1800 hours, Monday to Friday.

Should you need to cancel your appointment, please give sufficient notice so that your appointment can be given to someone else.

An appointment is for one person only and a separate appointment should be made for any other person attending.

If you feel that you require an urgent appointment, please make this clear to the receptionist. Every effort will be made to give you an appointment as soon as possible, although the appointment may not be with the Doctor of your choice.

Reception

The receptionists are your first point of contact with the practice and they are there to help you and will endeavour to deal with your enquiries as efficiently as possible. Occasionally, they may need to ask your medical details in order to do so. All the information received is treated in the strictest confidence. All procedures followed by the staff are strictly according to guidelines laid down by the Doctors. Please be patient with our staff who are often working under considerable pressure.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are onlyavailable for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.

How do I make an appointment?

Patients of Broughty Family Healthcare may make an appointment anytime between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, with the availability to book up to seven days in advance, either by:

· Telephone Call

· Presenting at reception

Do you require a routine appointment?

If you require an appointment for a problem which is not urgent, our reception staff will arrange one that suits. Due to the part-time commitment of some doctors however, you may have to wait several days for the doctor of your choice.

Do you require an urgent Appointment?

If you feel you need to be seen on the same day you contact the practice, our reception staff will offer you an ‘on the day’ appointment, or record your request and contact details for the doctor who will then review and phone you back or ask the receptionist to phone you back as soon as possible.

The timing of the return call depends on the volume of requests on that day – this increases on any Monday, after a public holiday or after an afternoon when the practice has been closed for in-service training.

It may not be possible to offer you an appointment with the GP of your choice due to the availability of an individual doctor

If you present at reception and request an urgent appointment and there is nothing available for the day you are making the request, you may be asked to return home to wait for a doctor to phone you back. Please note there is no Walk In service at the surgery.

Why is the call passed to the GP?

The GP will contact the patient by telephone to speak to the patient (or carer in some circumstances) and ascertain further details about the problem and based on the information provided, will make a clinical decision whether to:

Give the patient an appointment that day with any doctor.

Give the patient a telephone consultation appointment with a preferred doctor.

Give the patient an appointment at a time in the future with a particular doctor.

Give the patient an appointment with another member of the primary healthcare team eg: practice nurse or pass the request to the health visitor or district nurse.

Give the patient advice regarding the management of their problem.

Organise a prescription for collection, to alleviate their problem.

Does this depend on the time of day I phone for a request?

No – if you contact the surgery any time between 8am and 6pm for an urgent or on the day appointment, your call will be treated in the same way if there are no available appointments to offer.

Telephone Consultations

You may consult your doctor by telephone. Contact the practice before 11.00 am where possible, and the doctor will return your call as soon as possible during that day. Please give a landline number as a matter of course.

What happens if I request a home visit?

Patient requests for home visits are always a high priority for action. However, the practice is facing an increasing demand for home visits as the population of older housebound patients expands. A home visit can take 30 to 40 minutes and a doctor would normally be able to see 3 to 4 patients in the same time at the surgery. If you require a home visit please call before 10am whenever possible. This allows the visiting doctors to plan their day. The GP will monitor requests and on occasions may phone to gain additional information.

A home visit is considered appropriate for any patient who is confined to their home for medical reasons only, otherwise they will be asked to attend the surgery to be seen. Please note that a visit by a particular doctor cannot be guaranteed.

Cancelling Your Appointment

GP and nurse appointments are in short supply. Please remember to attend an appointment or cancel it as soon as you know you cannot attend or no longer require it. Even appointments cancelled at short notice can be used to benefit other patients and keep waiting times down.